


The Toy (Stayin' Alive)

by wolfiefics



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Ridiculous, Stucky Remix 2020, Toys, bucky is living large, steve's had enough of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:48:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23484844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfiefics/pseuds/wolfiefics
Summary: After a long day of crap, Steve just wants some time with his best guy. A package from Tony, however, is guaranteed to brighten his, and Bucky's, day.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 13
Kudos: 25
Collections: Stucky Remix 2020





	The Toy (Stayin' Alive)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LiquidLightz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiquidLightz/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Art: Dance date](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21359005) by [LiquidLightz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiquidLightz/pseuds/LiquidLightz). 



> I was assigned the fabulous LiquidLightz and was agonized. The art was so magnificent but seemingly very specific to the stories they were made for. Stories I had read and now associated them to. I was sitting at my work desk and happened to glance down at a Captain America bobblehead toy I got at the Disney Store. The scene flashed into my mind and wouldn't let go. The story's not much, just a little slice of life, a brief moment in time of two recovering WWII vets and supersoldiers dealing with the craziness of the 21st century. But I hope you like it, dear LiquidLightz, and you as well, dear readers! 
> 
> Thanks to the Stucky Remix 2020 gang for putting this together! I had a blast!

Steve Rogers was tired. He was tired of beating his head against the red taped bureaucracy that was S.H.I.E.L.D. to get anything done. There was always some pencil-necked, officious flunky spilling forth rules and regulations as to why something as simple as changing the brand of toilet paper was “not to code”. He parked his motorcycle in the spot reserved for he and Bucky’s shared brownstone in Brooklyn with a relieved sigh. Now that he was done with the officious twits, he could spend the rest of the day and evening with his best guy, doing whatever the hell they wanted without someone breathing disapprovingly down their necks.

Bucky was recently off his government issued probation. No more suspicious characters standing across the street from their home or following them to the grocery store in case Bucky decided to wholesale slaughter everyone in the pasta aisle. Bucky had uncomplainingly gone to the government-sanctioned therapist twice a week, even though Steve knew for a fact Bucky hated the man’s guts. Even the tracking ankle bracelet was gone. Bucky was, to a reluctant government’s declaration, a man free and clear of any wrongdoing, having been exonerated of his actions since 1945 by The Hague. It hadn’t stopped Washington from imposing “safety protocols due to the unknown damage to Mr. Barnes’ mental faculties”, however.

But Bucky was done with that, served his time, so to speak. With that, however, S.H.I.E.L.D. had decided that meant Steve and Bucky’s time was now theirs to use as they saw fit. That was the meeting Steve had just sat through with increasing anger and frustration. Two hours of people bombarding him with “you should be grateful for the employment as you have a skillset that is specific” and “you owe it to Dr. Erskine to fulfill your potential as we see fit”. Steve finally had enough of being polite and informed the room that slavery had been outlawed in the United States almost two hundred years ago, he didn’t owe anyone in that room shit and as for Dr. Erskine, they didn’t know anything about the man while Steve had been personal and close to him. And Steve knew that Dr. Erskine wanted him to be a good man, not a slave to the establishment. Captain America and the Winter Soldier was available should the Avengers Initiative need them. Otherwise, they were private citizens living off the earned income of their wartime service and Steve expected S.H.I.E.L.D. to respect the wishes of military veterans.

Then he walked out without looking back. He could feel Nick Fury’s glare piercing him between the shoulder blades but Steve didn’t give a rat’s ass.

That was all behind him now. He swung his leg off the motorcycle, locked it with the alarm activated and rolled his shoulders briefly to get rid of the kinks. He then bounded up the steps to their home, much nicer than anything two boys from the slums of Brooklyn almost a century ago had ever hoped to live in. He opened the door, straining his considerable senses to listen for Bucky’s presence.

There. From the back of the house. He heard music playing but couldn’t make out what exactly it was. He tossed his keys into the bowl on a stand by the door and shut the front door behind him as he stepped further into the foyer hallway.

“Hey Buck?” he called, moving toward the music.

“Back here!” Bucky called back.

Steve found his partner in their shared office/art studio. While not a natural artist like Steve, Bucky dabbled and always had. Steve’s eyes swept the room and found Bucky sitting in the window seat with a book in hand. Bucky set the book down and stood up, stretching lazily. Steve swallowed thickly, tamping down his arousal. Bucky gave him a lazy smile.

“You got a box from Stark,” Bucky said, motioning to the computer desk where a somewhat large box sat.

“What is it?” asked Steve, shedding his motorcycle jacket and tossing it over the back of the desk chair.

Bucky shrugged. “No idea, but the messenger who delivered it said Tony wanted your approval by tomorrow. Apparently, we are summoned for lunch at the Tower.” Bucky smirked. He and Tony had a semi-antagonistic relationship that concealed grudging respect for each other. Steve knew Bucky and Tony would never be the best of friends, there was too much bloody history between them, but their somewhat sharp teasing was tolerable compared to outright hostility.

Steve looked at the box again. It was labeled in Tony’s spiky handwriting “For Cap’s Approval-Stay Out of It, Barnes”. He grabbed the box cutter from a cup full of pens, pencils and such on the desk and ran the blade down the tape holding the box closed. He flipped the flaps open and stared at the contents.

It was full of toys: action figures, figurines, dolls, and plush likenesses of Captain America. Steve mentally sighed even as he reached in to pull things out for his inspection. He saw Bucky bouncing on his toes, taking the items from Steve and putting them on every available surface in the office. Soon the room was covered in Captain America toys.

“I forgot,” Steve confessed to Bucky’s delighted chuckles at the prototype toys. 

“Hey this one is you and me,” Bucky laughed, picking up a set of action figure toys, Steve in the stealth suit and Bucky as the Winter Soldier. A motorcycle accompanied the figures. Bucky pressed the button on the motorcycle toy and cackled at the very unSteve-like voice announcing pompously that it was Captain America.

Steve frowned. “I don’t think I approve of you dressed as the Winter Soldier,” he complained. “We’re trying to rehabilitate your image. This isn’t going to help.”

Bucky grinned and pressed the button again, making another sound from the toy, the revving of a motorcycle this time. “I don’t mind,” he confessed.

Steve continued to frown but dropped it. Together they began to inspect each item. There were all sorts of little plush toys, one that looked like a bean, a cutesy little plush with a fierce smile on it’s face, an absolutely adorable plush called an Itty Bitty that the note with it in Pepper’s writing said was sold exclusively by the Hallmark Card Company, and some Japanese-style representations destined for overseas sales. 

Steve pulled the inventory list out of the box, a spreadsheet with the toys listed and a place for him to initial his approval or disapproval. He was busying approving the plush toys when he heard behind him Bucky give a bark of delighted laughter.

“What?” he asked, turning around, list still in hand.

Bucky was holding up a little figurine on a built-in stand. While Steve watched, Bucky bopped the figurine’s head, causing it to bobble around wildly. “That’s cute,” offered Steve.

“They made you a brunette!” laughed Bucky, bobbling the head again. He was right, Steve noticed, the hair on the toy was a distinct brown. At least it wasn’t helmeted like most of the toys. “And the pose!” cackled Bucky.

Steve walked over and studied the toy. A little hand was imperiously pointed to the sky, as if directing his fellow Avengers in battle. “What’s wrong with it?”

“Ah, Ah, Stayin’ Alive!” sang Bucky purposefully off-key and mocking.

Steve’s brow furrowed as he tried to place the reference and failed. “I don’t understand,” he told his partner.

Bucky set the toy down, a shit-eating grin spreading on his face, his grey-blue eyes sparkling with mischief. And then Bucky began to dance in an exaggerated way, mimicking the disco dance style popular in the 1970s, Steve knew from videos and movies.

Steve, now having caught on, began to laugh. Bucky was right, the toy was mimicking the dance move from _Saturday Night Fever_. Bucky gyrated around the room, hand with pointer finger extended, flashing up and down as he moved.

Unable to help himself, spurred on by Bucky’s infectious joy and humor, Steve molded himself behind Bucky and gyrated with him, hands on Bucky’s hips He snuck a quick kiss on the back of Bucky’s neck. Bucky turned in Steve’s arms and his mischievous smile turned sultry.

“I approve,” he purred.

“Of sweeping the toys off the desk and using it? Or the toys specifically?” Steve arched an eyebrow, purposefully being dense.

“Both,” Bucky said huskily, reaching up the little difference in their heights and brushed a kiss on Steve’s mouth.

Steve was definitely going to approve that toy, brown hair or no.


End file.
